Fissures appear in BJP-JDS alliance days before joint campaign
Although the JDS is aware that it is the nominal partner in the alliance, it would not want to concede space to the BJP in the Mysore region.
The lack of coordination between state units of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (Secular) is responsible for the public disagreement among the allies about taking on Siddaramaiah’s regime in Karnataka.
The BJP has constituted a coordination committee headed by former state general secretary and current legislative council member N Ravikumar to facilitate a rapprochement between the BJP and JDS, Karunakar Reddy, a BJP leader told HT.
“The estrangement is temporary. We are confident that the JDS will be part of the padayatra and take the issue of Congress’ corruption to its logical conclusion,” Reddy said.
Former chief minister and Lingayat strongman BS Yediyurappa and Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, BJP’s national general secretary who is also in charge of Karnataka, are both advising state president BY Vijayendra on resolving the tussle with the JDS, a BJP leader, who asked not to be named, said.
The first signs of disagreement between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies came after Union minister HD Kumaraswamy’s statement about being excluded by the BJP in planning the padayatra (foot march) to protest against Siddaramaiah’s involvement in the Mysore land scam. The week-long yatra is expected to commence on August 3 (Saturday) from Bangalore traversing through many districts culminating in Mysore.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Kumaraswamy, also the state president of the JDS said, “There is a possibility of criticism from people. With this background, we withdrew from the yatra. What are the benefits of yatra? A legal battle is important. Politics is not important to us. We don't even give moral support and why should we give support when we are not taken into confidence? We have power from Bengaluru to Mysuru.”
Kumaraswamy’s comments came just a week after he joined the BJP union minister Prahlad Joshi and the party’s state leaders Yediyurappa and his son Vijayendra to address a press conference in Bangalore on the proposed padayatra.
BJP leaders did not immediately respond to Kumaraswamy’s irate response. Instead, senior members of the central leadership have been dispatched to Karnataka to resolve the impasse.
Why is the JDS upset?
The JDS has cited three reasons. The bad timing of the yatra given the continuous downpours ravaging parts of Malnad in the state, the involvement of one of BJP’s general secretaries and former Hassan legislator Preetham Gowda, and the exclusion of the state JDS leaders in planning it; Gowda has, incidentally, been blamed for exposing the sex videos involving Prajwal and Suraj Revanna.
"Can we share the stage with someone (Preetham Gowda) who sought to poison the Deve Gowda family?” asked Kumaraswamy at the New Delhi presser.
However, a JDS leader HT spoke to revealed other undercurrents that are gnawing at the JDS leaders. “We have not been consulted on the modality of the yatra and expected outcomes of the protest have to be outlined which has not been done,” said Pratap Kanagal, a JDS leader.
Mysore, Mandya, and Hassan - are all JDS strongholds. The party fears that the BJP will become dominant in this region, a Vokkaliga heartland. The padayatra, as planned initially, was to be led by Vijayendra, the son of veteran BJP Lingayat leader BS Yediyurappa. The JDS wants Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of HDK to also gain some political visibility when the protest is staged in Ramanagara, the HDK family bastion. Other senior leaders such as Suresh Gowda, GT Deve Gowda, and Ravindra Srikantaiah need to be accommodated as well.
Although the JDS is aware that it is the nominal partner in the alliance, it would not want to concede space to the BJP in the Mysore region, more so because it wants to be seen taking on Siddaramaiah, who is also from the Mysore - Chamrajnagar region. Varuna, his constituency is from this region. BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate and current Maharaja of Mysore Yaduveer Wadiyar’s victory from Mysore also is believed to have shaken the JDS.
“In an alliance, there has to be a give and take. We must have the freedom to express our views. Just because we are a junior partner in an alliance, we do not want to be sidelined,” Kanagal said.
JDS leaders said that the relationship between the party leaders at the centre remains cordial.
The BJP’s repair and reaction
Sensing that the JDS’ involvement was critical to the alliance pinning Siddaramaiah, the BJP acted swiftly. It dispatched Radha Mohan Das, the sitting Rajya Sabha member of the BJP, who was earlier Karnataka election in charge and was successful in quelling rebellion within the party and uniting rebel leaders across various regions of the state.
The state unit of the BJP was asked not to respond until the air was cleared with the JDS. “Ravikumar was earlier the Chief Whip in the assembly and was also a former general secretary of the party. He, along with Dr Das, are on course to pacify the JDS and BJP state units,” the BJP leader quoted above said.
With the coordination committee in place, the BJP will hope to resolve the impasse before August 3, when the padayatra is slated to be flagged off from Bangalore. As confirmed to HT by a senior union minister last week, this yatra was supposed to state president Vijayendra’s coming-of-age yatra to showcase his capability in the state. But with JDS’ frenzied reaction, the BJP may have to tweak its plan of maximising political mileage from this yatra.
But even as the BJP and JDS’ internal battles make news, is the alliance really at odds as portrayed?
“The BJP and the JDS are using each other in their factional fights as much as they are together against the Congress. One faction of the state unit in BJP is not happy with the alliance, and equally so, some in the JDS are unhappy with Kumaraswamy and his family enjoying all the limelight. So, the impasse is also a reflection of some correction and balancing taking place within the parties,” said A Narayana, political science department head at the Azim Premji University in Bangalore.
Other political experts reckon that Kumaraswamy could be buying time to rethink the timing of the padayatra since such campaigns fetch political brownie points if undertaken only in the fourth year of the ruling party’s tenure.
“Kumaraswamy could also fear retaliatory action from Congress since it is known that many JDS leaders also benefitted from the Mysore Urban Development Authority’s action to reallot plots. An underplayed hand could bode well for the JDS in exchange for the protection of certain overriding concerns,” Narayana said.
An intraparty balancing act is crucial for both the BJP and the JDS given that Karnataka politics has been defined by these internal contrasts and conflicts as often as by its achievements. Whenever the JDS has been in alliance with the Congress or the BJP, the interludes of cooperation have been interspersed with contradictions, history shows.
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